Reactive Strength Quest with Burn24, AnaBeta Elite, and BF

So to keep the momentum going from my last log I received another bottle of Burn24 to finish off my RTS cycle leading to a mock meet. I have continued using Burn24 and added in AnaBeta Elite and Bioforge last week.

Supplements

Hoping to try and keep it from getting too crazy:

Staple-like products (used for entire duration of log):
Aqua Red: 3 pills per day with final meal.
Cissus XT: 4 caps per day.
Genomyx Creignite: 2 scoops per day.
Gut Health: 1 cap with last meal of the day.

The Good Stuff:
Burn24: 2caps 3 times per day.
AnaBeta Elite: 2 caps pre-workout and 2 with post workout meal.
Bioforge: 3 caps upon waking.
AlphaT2: 3 caps per day

Current Periworkout Nutrition:
Seen some solid benefits with some PRO/CHO intake during my lifts lately. They all are usually around 1.5hours at least with focus on strength.
1 scoop Strive + 20-40g carbohydrates during my workout.
Will also usually take 1 scoop ModernBCAA+ (mostly for the Leucine) + Stim of Choice (if necessary) as well.

Probably going to use Decimate or Alphamine every morning as my work shifts are intense during the summer and I usually need some mood/energy boost to get me through the first part (I spend 10-12hrs at work for several of my days during the week).

Lifting

Currently on week 5 of 9 for my first training block of RTS. I broke down quite a bit of what I was doing in the last log but if anyone needs me to repeat (or if you didn't follow) let me know and I'll explain in depth again. Will also explain the newer changes to training as well.

Carb Cycling:
High Carb Days (Training): 400g Carbs/225g Protein/70g Fat Typically these are the minimums and I hit 3200 cals with the addition being just whatever extra ends up being eaten.
Moderate Carb Days (GPP): 300g/225g/70g
Low Carb Day (Off): 200g/225g/80-90g

This may go up as my job is somewhat demanding so caloric expenditure will probably rise as I have some of these really long days.

Goals:

Strength is still the number 1 goal.
Not gaining weight just to gain weight is goal 2. Want to maintain an effective balance of strength to weight gain increase.
Hoping to maximize recovery with these products and continue my current effective training cycle.

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Squat w/Belt Work up to x5 @9 (Load Drop) 4-6% Fatigue
2ct Pause Bench Work up to x2 @9 (Load Drop) 4-6% Fatigue
Close Grip Floor Press Work up to x3 @8 (Repeats)

Adductor/IT Band foam roll, Hip Mobility
Squats w/Belt:
Warm Up- 135lbs x 6, 185lbs x6, 225lbs x 6, 275lbs x 6
315lbs x 5 @8.5
335lbs x 5 @9
Load Drop
315lbs x 5 @8
315lbs x5 @9
Solid again. Feel great squatting lately. Went with a wider grip to try and prevent elbow issues (no issues at all today) so that made it a little "harder" as I wasn't as tight. Will work back in on grip and see if it pops back up but felt great today.

Work schedule changed (summer hours are quite busy for me) so I lifted later than usual and after much more work than usual. I was pretty tired before I even started but was able to get focused pretty quick, just not a ton of energy compared to my usual earlier lifts. I will probably adapt as it continues (I tend to get used to it as workout times shift but remain constant).

Honestly only getting to 225lbs seemed rather light. Expected more but I was absolutely beat by the time I got to this part in my workout. Regardless of weight it "felt" hard at 225lbs so I went with that to maintain good form and not feed some ego after an already great session.

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I felt kind of beat and wasn't sure if I would do this workout out and thought about skipping. I am glad I did it as I felt much better at the end. I got through some solid interval work done and recovered pretty fast from the 180bpm down to the 162bpm until the fatigue hit.

The whole thing felt just a little off today. Not sure if the band set up was off or just some overall fatigue but I didn't feel as "crisp" as usual and getting it out of the rack was a little more of a hassle than usual (I have it rigged up in not the best set up but the only real option for this lift at my gym). Either way I got up to a solid weight passed what I anticipated based on the warm ups today. Also surprised how light 285lbs felt after how hard 305lbs felt at the top with the bands.

I honestly hate this lift. 3 reps felt like a nice rep range though and I got a decent amount of work in to finish my lift.

This is the first week I am feeling a little more fatigued since starting RTS. I have no doubt that it is due to the summer increase in working hours. Still nothing crazy or bad and TRAC (recovery monitoring system) still has me doing quite well from a recovery standpoint.

Diet:
Higher carb day today.

Will try and start adding some more Burn24 and other supplement reflections starting tomorrow. Busy has me slacking but time to man up and toss some stuff up. Honestly though 2 caps prior to 150g carb meals keeps me from going all carb coma after lately.

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Had never done these before so I took a very slow build up because I didn't trust too high of jumps. Wore myself out with only the 10lb jumps but each time I went up it didn't seem much harder. First time I have had 225lbs in my hands in awhile and I felt good with it.

Basically I rolled up a towel and placed it under my shirt. It was supposed to be 8cm but I didn't go all exact and measure it. Like a soft 1-2board with a very light touch and go. Supposed to avoid the way some can dip into a board and "spring" it back up. Almost like stopping right above the chest with this method. Was interesting....

Lower back and glutes were pretty fried after the banded deads, but these felt solid.

I felt like a machine today. Just kept on moving and pushing past weights that I thought would be tougher than they were. Feeling confident heading into the weekend.

Diet:
Moderate Carb day.

Supplements:
-Decimate + AT2 upon waking. ABE + AT2 + MBCAA+ pre-workout. Strive + Carbs peri-workout.
-Burn24 throughout the day with 3 meals.
-Weight was up about 1-2lbs this morning from the normal weight this week. Those extra carbs yesterday seemed to have me holding some extra weight, which may have been the cause for the very nice workout today.
-Last night I ate a TON of carbs in my final meal and still felt incredibly hungry after...ABE + Burn24 has me punishing carbs with no issues currently.
-Trying to stay low stim (other than my morning Decimate), which coincides with a break I am taking from Enhanced (and any agmatine atm ). I don't seem to have any issues with energy, despite some stimless pre-workout sessions lately.

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Combined with a cap of AT2 in the morning it has me feeling great and some nice energy to get me through morning work. Can't comment on fat loss (eating in a surplus) but as far as mood it hits me very strong at 30minutes.

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I honestly respond to PEA pretty well, despite most of the stuff I've read saying it really shouldn't do much. With Decimate I get probably the strongest euphoria at 30-60minutes of any supplement I have tried (similar to the first time I used Craze). It doesn't last very long and by 90minutes it mellows to be on par to what I feel with Alphamine (both seem to keep my mood up for a good 5-6 hours after initial dose). The stim and energy are more gradual as 2 scoops Alphamine gets me rolling and mentally stimulates me better. Decimate + AT2 though is a great combo that helps combine some of the positive effects I get from both and the bacopa also seems to make the combo a very smooth and calm feeling.

As for my workouts:
Ok so weekend update:

I didn't really do much this weekend. Just worked, did some mobility work, watched Man of Steel, and ate some epic food for Father's Day.

I need to up calories again. Body is on some insane metabolism ish right now...weight still at ~165lbs (up about 3-4lbs over the last ~2months from when I competed) despite some pretty large intakes lately (relative to my little self). Abs and waist are looking super tight right now.

Also note that my waist is definitely down lately because my normal notch on the belt seems a little loose right now and the next notch down seems just a tad too tight.

Upper/Lower Trap Mash/Shoulder Mobility
Pin Press Bench:
Warm Up: 45lbs x 5 x 2, 95lbs x 5, 115lbs x 5, 135lbs x 5
165lbs x 3 @7
185lbs x 3 @8
195lbs x 3 @9
Load Drop
180lbs x 3 @7
180lbs x 3 @7
180lbs x 3 @7
180lbs x 3 @7.5
180lbs x 3 @8
180lbs x 3 @8
180lbs x 3 @9
I need a better rack with better pin spacing. One pin setting was too high and the other forced me to lessen my arch on my set up so that the bar could pause on the pins and not my chest. Not necessarily a bad thing working with less arch just felt a little off at first. I may have overestimated the RPE of that 195lbs set because I honestly felt like 180lbs was nothing. I banged out all those sets with barely a minute in between after the load drop. Back tightness and set up felt perfect and blasting the weight off the pin wasn't much issue. O well got tons of volume in and surprised myself with its ease.

Overall this session went above expectations. I felt great upon waking today but as the day dragged on I felt fatigued. Had to really buckle down and focus to not slack today and had a very nice lift.

Diet:
Was going with a moderate carbohydrate day, but bumping it to a high carbohydrate day due to that bench volume today. Easily going to demolish at least 400g today.

Supplements:
-Decimate + AT2 + BF upon waking. Added some Creignite to the Decimate lately to offset that fiery piperine it has. I kind of like the bite but it still tastes better with the added watermelon goodness.
-Still 3 doses of Burn24 spread out.
-I am feeling a little fatigued today, but recovery from workouts still seems to be going great. Despite pounding quite a bit of food I am apparently maintaining weight and leaning out slowly.
-Not really noticing a ton of DOMS lately. I feel beat up the night of after each lift but always wake up the following mornings with at most just some residual soreness that dissipates pretty quickly once I get moving around.

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Bar felt light off the ground today compared to the last several weeks. 315lbs went up with some nice speed. 345lbs went up much easier than anticipated. 365lbs wasn't super tough either and may have been a shade under 9 but I wanted to maintain some perfect form. Load drop made the weight feel super light. I stopped after the fourth set as my upper glute got real tight and I felt it was better safe than sorry (no issues for the rest of the workout or so far today with it).

175lbs may have been a tad over 9. Last rep was slower than I wanted. Felt really quick and solid after the load drop. Ability to bang out multiple sets on bench was up again today. Nice trend the last two days, considering I normally die out on bench pretty quick.

Wasn't really looking forward to this...being at the end of the workout and having to hit some heavy paused squats was sitting in the back of my mind all morning. Went pretty well. I went as low as I could on these (ATG) and the hips felt better than they did yesterday on squats.

Since I was a little fatigued yesterday I decided to go to sleep earlier last night and got a solid 9 hours in bed. Felt very refreshed this morning and TRAC had my recovery on point. Definitely showed itself in today's solid session. I filmed a lot of my lifts today on my buddies phone but didn't post them to youtube so no vids for the log. I did much better maintaining lower hips through the initial pull of the deadlifts, which may explain why it felt easier from the floor today.

Supplements:
-Decimate + AT2 + BF upon waking. This had me humming all morning and with the extra energy I skipped a pre-workout stim today.
-I ate a crap load of carbs yesterday. Despite this I woke up dry and had no carb comas yesterday afternoon. Carbs are still high but not as many as yesterday. Despite the crazy volume on the benching I have zero DOMS in the upper body.
-All day pumps are apparent. ABE is definitely kicked in fully and has added to the fullness Burn24 has me holding. Getting pumps at 3-5 reps on compound exercises with relatively long rest periods? Can't imagine doing some GVT or anything above 10 reps right now...
-I've been avoiding snapping pics lately as I have a tendency to overanalyze them and considering I want to focus on strength I feel it better not to nitpick looking at myself and wondering if I am adding fat, etc. I did flex a bit in the mirror last night (lol) and veins were everywhere...I was surprised.

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Tired this morning. Once again (like usual) after doing this workout I felt much better. I spent some extra time stretching and doing some soft tissue work as I have found a trigger point in my shoulder that needed extra attention and my hip flexors are more tight than usual (compared to last couple months).

Was nervous attempting 215lbs. Just because I have had times where I thought I'd get the weight with paused bench, only to miss. I was feeling really good today so just went for it. Felt light unracking it and hit a solid 4 with a definite 5th in the tank. Very happy with how the whole set went. Bench is the biggest mental challenge of all the lifts for me (I always doubt it and it is my weakest lift).

If I said I hate push press then that means I despise these. Form felt great (hadn't done these in awhile), but I fatigued quickly.

Diet:
Yesterday was my lowest carb day (still 250g) and today will be a high carb day again (same as Monday). I made a ton of sloppy joes for the week...haven't had that in forever.

Supplements:
-I ran out of AlphaT2 yesterday but got some more in today.
-I am pretty ravenous at night. Eat a ton and feel full but still hungry.
-Weight up another pound this week so far.
-I feel strong in the gym on everything. Weights feel lighter and I am pretty much hitting new heights with EVERYTHING I do.

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Awesome news on how the weights are moving for you . My bench used to be bomb until I got bicep tendinitis. Couldn't BB bench at all and I just recently started incorporating it again as well as incline BB. No aggravation noticed yet which is good news. I am having to do BB bench on the smith machine though.